Forty million more will die from “plagues and civil disorder” in the following seven months.

Mr Barnard, however, has no doubt we can start thinking about mowing the lawn again.

He told the Sunday Mercury: “Unless it has come from an official body, take it with a pinch of salt.

“It’s just the latest ‘the end of the world is nigh’ scare. These rumours come around all the time.”

He stressed nothing significant had been spotted spinning towards us, but conceded: “The danger is always there, but now we can do something as a pre-warning.”

This frame grab made from a video done with a dashboard camera captures a meteor as it streaks through the sky over Chelyabinsk, about 930 miles east of Moscow in February 2013. (Image: AP Photo/AP Video)